


Too Little

by scarytinyturtlebutt



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Other, recovery fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-31
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2018-02-11 06:26:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2057331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarytinyturtlebutt/pseuds/scarytinyturtlebutt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's an au and the caste system was more or less dismantled sweeps ago. Trolls and humans live on the same planet. Some people still point out they descended from royalty or nobility, but they aren't that way themselves. There are some who kept their titles, and they're in figurehead positions or rarely have the actual jobs that come along with the titles. Gamzee's lusus is still not the best caretaker in the world. This is him being taken back to civilization and getting better and moving on with his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Little

**Author's Note:**

> This will be updated whenever I feel like it and it's not betaed. Some points will be taken from my recovery, but it is in no way based off of it. I might be late to the party but I still showed. Congrats, go forth and conquer.

The night had been clear and warm, not too windy, but enough that it buffeted Tavros higher and he caught it in his wings making the going easier; it was a perfect night for flying. 

He had landed a job as an imperial courier because of his wings, and was headed out to the beach in a district that barely had a population. The imperial station in that district had been closed almost a full two sweeps because nobody lived out there. He was flying all the way from Prospit's capital to the middle of nowhere, but it was a beautiful night, and it really wasn't taking altogether too long. 

The package was capatalogued. He looked all along the beach, fairly certain he was looking for a skittish seadweller who was used to their solitude.  
He had their coordinates, their name, age, and their symbol was on the package itself. No clue on gender or anything else. They were indigo, but with how much colours varied, he was so sure he was looking for a seadweller. They were his age, so that'd help.

The only hive he'd seen out here was sitting in the general area he was looking, a lonely black chunk of imperial workerdrone work at the foot of the sea.  
He came down in spirals to slow his descent, flying high was the best for long distances, and flapped hard right near the ground to land safely and gently. He yawned and stretched before he walked up to the door of the hive and rang the bell, stepping back so there would be a slightly safer feeling distance between him and the poor kid that was probably going to spook them moment he asked them to sign for their package. 

A tiny little guy answered the door and Tavros mentally hit himself for not checking the coordinates before he landed. This kid was a head and a half shorter than him, hadn't even hit his adult molt yet. He was definitely from a later clutch than the one he and whoever he was delivering to tonight were in. This kid's eyes hadn't even filled in yet. 

"Uhh, hi there. Sorry to intrude on your night. Do you have a neighbor named Gamzee Makara?" 

The kid's jaw dropped and Tavros felt so bad for the mistake. He wondered how long it had been since he'd seen another troll. At least the seadweller would've been expecting him. This little guy got stuck being surprised. His nose ruffled slightly when he smelled that distinct sweet-bitter odor of a few night's without bathing, and looked at the kid's messy hair. He could wait a couple minutes for the kid to reply and not pressure him into an anxiety attack if he was really not used to other trolls, so he waited. 

"fffffff- motherFUCK bro, you got a sick pair of wings." He was staring at him with huge black eyes and Tavros smiled. 

"Yeah, they get me around." At least the surprise from seeing his wings looked like it was overriding any urge the kid might be having to panic right now. 

"You're a miracle." The voice it was said with was almost reverent and breathless, Tavros' eyes widened a little.

Okay whoa there, kid was getting a little too starry eyed there. Tavros flushed, that wasn't something he'd been called before. And it was so sad because this guy was just a kid. 

"Thank you... look, I'm a courier and I'm looking for your neighbor Gamzee Makara. Have you seen them lately or at all? Know where I can find them?"

"Fuck- I- Fuck no. Sorry. I didn't even fucking know I had a neighbor with my name until you told me bro. Never met 'em." Tavros raised an eyebrow. That hadn't even sounded sarcastic. But, even Feferi had hit her adult molt, and she was about as cold as you could run. There was no way this guy was 11 sweeps old. His eyes were still black. He was too little.

"You're Gamzee Makara?" 

The kid grinned wide enough that Tavros thought his face might crack and his heart twisted in alarm at how sweet and real the smile was. 

"Hell yeah."

There had to be something really wrong- and this guy, Gamzee, was smiling at him like everything was wonderful. He wasn't even skittish of him. 

"I- did you order something from Margie's cosmetics recently?" 

Gamzee stared at him blankly. 

"I don't- rightly know?" He hazarded, looking a little concerned that he didn't. He was looking at Tavros with big eyes in a wary sad way like he was concerned he wouldn't like him if he answered wrong. Tavros was looking at the guy more carefully, but he didn't have the best view of him with his back to the moonlight and the guy in the darkened doorway. He had a delicate silhouette... he could just about tell the marks of a painted face- indigos were sometimes known for being circus even with how small the following had become.

"Maybe you ordered some facepaint?" There was another too long pause while Gamzee thought about that possibility. He broke out into a relieved grin that was still completely real, it went all the way up to his eyes with tiny wrinkles in the corners of his eyes. But the skin looked stretched and thin, his face was sharp angles, and Tavros almost felt like he could cry. 

"Yeah man! I fucking ran out of that shit." 

When had he run out and how long had he been wearing that paint? His voice was too quiet and disused. 

Tavros covered his mouth with one hand to stop a sob from coming out, he couldn't help a few tears slipping out, and then he was crying. 

Gamzee stood up straighter in alarm. His jaw was dropped in shock and he stared at Tavros like there were no thoughts to shuffel through, just blank and nothing. Upset, shock, no thoughts. 

"..sorry, allergies." Tavros lied, wiping his eyes on the back of his wrist, wiping them again when it didn't help. He took a slightly shaky breath to steady himself, but smelling that the troll in front of him hadn't been taking care of himself even to bathe didn't help. 

He needed to hand over the package, have Gamzee sign for it, and when he got home he could make a report and get the guy some help. 

He could probably ask to use the kid's wifi so he could look at the map and get home, and he wouldn't even question the imperial network being down. Maybe buddy up to him and see if he could take him to a nearby town at least. 

Tavros was still wiping his eyes on his wrist. Something was seriously wrong with this guy, and it was worse that his crying was upsetting him. Gamzee was standing half frozen and staring wide eyed at him. It hurt to look at him. It was like seeing a stray barkbeast in an alleyway, those eyes cut him straight to the heart and it would hurt to leave him there. 

It wasn't pale feelings. He already had a great moirail and wasn't cheating on Aradia by papping this guy, but he needed help. He needed to get around other trolls and see a doctor. 

"Sorry, I just- would you come flying with me? I- would you like to?" Gamzee blinked in surprise, looking thrown off and derailed. "Please come back to Derse with me." 

Gamzee opened and shut his mouth like he was trying to reply and couldn't get anything out. 

"Fuck..... you sure get down to business fast." He was staring at Tavros like he could leap into his arms or bolt back into his hive and hide somewhere safe for the rest of the night. The fear and longing was heartbreaking, and stiffened Tavros's resolve about the matter. 

"It's safe. I have a harness that would attach you to me. No risk of falling."

Gamzee worried his bottom lip with his fangs, still not coming closer or running. Then he turned his face towards the sea. 

"But what if my dad comes back and I'm all up and not here?" 

Tavros' heart clenched. Any lusus would've abandoned their ward around nine sweeps, deeming them ready to take care of themselves. If this guy's lusus had noticed something was up and was sticking around, it wasn't taking good care of him. He didn't look like someone who had a lusus. Still, if he did, and the lusus was okay for land travel, or small enough to be carried, it might make the kid less wary to bring them along too.

"Do you know when to expect your dad back?" 

Tavros smelled real fear in the air when he asked. The indigo was shaking a little.

(Been longer than normal- he always come back- he's got to wait for his dad.) His words were clipped and nearly mumbled to himself, and if Tavros had any uncertainties about there possibly being a lusus around, he didn't now.

"Your dad will be fine for a few days." He promised. The fates only knew where this guy's lusus was. Dead or moved on. He held out his hands. "Come along, it'll be all right." He was keeping his body language calm and nonthreatening. 

Gamzee reached for his hands and the bony cold things were not unlike getting gripped by a raptor. 

He held still while Tavros put the harness on him and tightened the straps. He wasn't thrilled that the one Tavros put on made it so he'd be facing away from him. But he didn't seem to mind that it would have meant flying upside-down. 

As an added measure Tavros took out a cold season coat from his sylladex and a pair of goggles he only wore when the wind was up. The height could get a little chilly, and a coldblood would be more sensitive to it. 

Gamzee lit back up in baffled surprise when the coat was zipped and buttoned around him. It was way too big for him and he flapped the sleeves.

"Whoa, you're a big motherfucker and that's the truth!" 

Tavros hooked them up, and Gamzee's feet didn't touch the ground. He seemed enthralled by it, and gave a huge shuddering gasp when they took off that soon turned into a stream of 'oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.'

He flapped his arms with the long sleeves for awhile once he settled down about being in the air. It was almost immediately after Tavros had gotten to the elevation he usually flied at for long trips. Not everyone was okay with it, not that he'd had a lot of people in the air with him, but it was a little unusual. Maybe he'd had a fisherbird lusus. That'd explain why he looked out to sea.

A half hour in and Gamzee's enthusiastic and small voice tapered off. Held close with the harness and in the warm coat, he'd gone to sleep.  
It was the quietest flight Tavros could remember with another person.

 

________________________

 

"Holy shit. What stinks?" Karkat had gotten back from taking lunch in the park and something had some kind of FUNK in the shop. "Kanaya if you got back early and you're making some kind of new medicine, why are you fucking making it with the windows closed?" He was already opening the windows while he was talking. "I don't care if the neighbors complain. It smells like ripe ass on a hot summer's day or like something died fucking weeks ago and you decided to scrape it off the ground and bring it home with you." 

Some wriggler was staring at him wide-eyed from where they were sitting on one of the stools by the front desk. He was going to ask what they wanted, herbs or flowers, but then he saw the sorry state the kid was in. Holy shit, was that what smelled? 

"What the fuck. When was the last time you bathed?" The kid had long spindly horns and looked more delicate the more detail he took in, maybe even a little skeletal. He was a little greasy looking and had something greyish smeared on his face. Instead of tucking his head down and getting ready for a fight, a normal reaction to Karkat's loudness from people who didn't know him, his mouth had opened in shock and his head was lifted slightly in a subordinative gesture to expose his throat. 

Karkat had seen that shit in movies, but people didn't- they didn't actually do that. Even if they weren't in the best position to fight, aggression was natural when feeling threatened. Shit, instincts would say aggress, and those were built up from lusus-care. Fighting was always considered natural- oh crap. It was an orphan. Who brought in an orphan and just left them here? 

"Sorry, I was in the cro. Hey Karkat."

"Tavros, what the crap?" 

"This is Gamzee. Gamzee, this is Karkat. I want Kanaya to look the kid over." Tavros didn't even look sheepish about it. He was better with animals than with people, and he'd brought enough of both around to deal with. Tavros would hold them and Karkat or Kanaya would set bones or disinfect and stitch up wounds. 

Karkat looked the kid over. He was probably around six sweeps old, black eyes wide as a scared barkbeast's. 

"Nice to meet you Gamzee." Karkat greeted, to no reply. Good grief, had the kid never talked to an adult troll before? "Can you tell me if you have any open wounds right now? Any gashes or cuts?" 

Tavros actually had to fucking coax the kid into replying. Karkat watched with growing unease. 

"No, I'm fine." Was the answer he got. 'Fine' was not what he'd call the kid. At the very least they weren't going to be dealing with wounds that had gone septic. 

"That's good. Okay Gamzee, the first thing you're gonna do is take a bath." Karkat was going to have to clean the ablution trap after this. "Come on, follow me." Karkat waved him over and headed to the back of the shop, that connected to the living space above.

Gamzee hesitated, and Tavros went forward first and beckoned him over. The kid's ears flicked nervously, then he got up to follow Tavros. 

Karkat put down the urge to comment. It looked like a baby cluckbeast trailing after its lusus-cluckbeast. He led them to the back and up the stairs. "Tavros, you know where the ablution room is, you can start running the bath and I'll go see if I can find anything that will fit Gamzee." 

Karkat went to his room and went through drawers. A plain pair of black pants could maybe fit the kid if they pulled the drawstrings tight and cuffed the bottoms. It'd do. Nothing of his would fit properly, obviously. But he wasn't washing the clothes Gamzee had come in wearing. He was going to burn them. They looked like he'd gotten them at five, they were worn and baggy in places, but too short around the torso, and they looked grey and stiff around the wrinkles, and had hints of colour in other places suggesting they might've been black when he got them. Hell, he couldn't even really tell what colour his sign had been. 

Yeah, he was so fucking burning those. 

He had a couple of shirts that didn't have his sign on them, novelty things. Nobody was wearing his old My Chemical Quadrants shirt, that was staying in the closet where it belonged. He got out the one from Prospit. 'I went to Prospit, here's a shirt in their colours' sort of deal. It wouldn't fit him, but it'd work. 

He took the clothes back to the ablution room, and had to go back to his room to check online what exactly the right temperature for an indigo was. Tavros was only getting 'I don't know's' out of the kid when he tried to ask him whether or not the water felt an okay temperature. He was used to seawater and a little disbelieving of indoor plumbing. At least they were making an attempt at not giving him brain damage from heatstroke. 

Gamzee got undressed and into the tub while they were out of the room, and then they went back in to make sure he didn't drown. Tavros was convinced the kid wasn't going to be up to actually getting himself clean. 

In five minutes he'd gone groggy and nearly limp from the heat. It was barely warm to Tavros and felt tepid to Karkat. It was the right temperature for the kid's colour when they checked it again. Karkat still went and got an ear thermometer and checked the kid's temperature. It was a little high. He fussed a little when they added a touch more cold water, besides that he was more or less as unresponsive as a noodle. 

Karkat ended up having to hold the kid up through most of the bath while Tavros washed him with a hand towel. The towel was all kinds of nasty by the end, and the water was a murky dark grey with hints of brown and green. 

Tavros held the kid in a towel while Karkat drained the tub, wiped up the silt and whatever else had collected in the bottom and threw it away. Stray barkbeasts Tav'd brought in had had more fight and self-awareness. Most of them had also been cleaner. A lot of rinsing and almost another complete bath later, he was clean and toweled dry, dressed and left on the couch to sleep it off. 

The tub was cleaned, the trash taken out (including Gamzee's old clothes), and both Karkat and Tavros each had a shower. Their arms had ended up smelling a little off.

Once they were clean too, they hung out in the livingroom. 

Gamzee was still on the couch, laying on his side like they'd left him, and they sat in the two chairs opposite it on the other side of the caffeinated bean brew table. 

"Where the fuck did you find this guy?" 

Tavros pinched his brow. 

"He was actually the guy I was delivering to tonight." 

"So out in the middle of no-fucks nowhere." Far enough out that it was too much of an inconvenience for ground mail to be sent out. "He's what, six?" 

"He's our age." Tavros furled his eyebrows in concern and rested his head in his hand. 

"What?"

"All the paperwork was in order. He's an 11 sweep old indigo." The brownblood ran a hand through his mohawk before resting his face on it again. "I know he's tiny. I think he's missed his adult molt." 

"Crap." Karkat's face went serious. "He might've missed two molts still being that size." He drummed his fingers against his thigh. "I almost thought he was imprinting on you when he was all for following you. Oh fuck me, maybe that's not wrong. How fucking early do you think he was orphaned?"

"Sometime around five sweeps maybe? If he was already six, he would've been a bit bigger now."

"Yeah, maybe around five. Shit damn, that's practically a big pupa." Karkat shook his head. "He doesn't look like he'd learned to take care of himself or hunt very well by then." 

Gamzee hadn't woken up by the time Kanaya came back. Karkat went down to get her, she'd come in through the shop entrance. The moment she was fully in the shop her face changed. Lips pursed into a frown as she looked around the shop for something out of place.

"I believe something is dying, presently."

"Shit, sorry, it hasn't aired out too well yet." Karkat was frowning too. "Could you come upstairs? We have a guy that needs to be looked over. Tavros brought him in. He looks six, he's supposed to be eleven, and we don't know what to do with him." 

Cuts and wounds could be stitched up or bandaged, broken bones could be set, and the animals Tavros brought in could be rehabilitated and brought to new homes. The very rare occasion that he'd brought in a person, it was usually just a knife wound or a slight panic from seeing something. A few stitches or a cup of tea generally had them righted and they went on their way.

What could you do with an unhealthy orphan if you weren't going to cull them?

Kanaya looked Gamzee a once over without waking him. She took his temperature with the ear thermometer and made sure he still had a heartbeat.  
He was fairly well out. 

"His immune system is unquestionably shot. He might not be sick now, but he'll catch anything easily, and any sickness will kill him at this point." 

Tavros looked horrified at the prospect. Karkat had a sinking feeling he was right there with him. Go through the trouble of bringing a runt to someplace safe and lususing them up a bit with a bath only to find out you'd cleaned a corpse for its corpse party wasn't the nicest of outcomes.

"He needs a sterile environment and real doctoring and care, not just herbs. I'm going to write a letter to the sisters at Midstelwape Abbey where I trained and see if they can take him. You're going to take it to them tonight, and then if they can, take him there tonight too."

Tavros was alarmed.

"But he's already tired from the first flight. He wouldn't be up for traveling-"

"Tavros, you will kill him if you keep him here. He cannot stay in Derse. This is one of the most populated cities on the continent. Someone is always sick. Be it a cold or fever, I wouldn't bet on his chances with any illness. Something mild that you could get over in a day will stick with him and end him. If you want that, you should take him back to his hive and cull him." Kanaya watched the colour drain out of Tavros' face and softened. "He'll certainly be more tired when he goes, but his chances are better there." Jade eyes looked at the sleeping troll on the couch critically. "We'll let him sleep for now." 

Kanaya went to her room to write out the letter. 

Karkat got a few snuggle planes out of the hall closet and carefully put them over Gamzee. He wasn't shivering, but if he started he might wake himself up. Gamzee's hair was fluffier now that it was cleaner and dry. It was badly tangled and wouldn't be a hundred percent clean until it was picked out, brushed, and rewashed.  
He wasn't going to be the one to do it, and he felt both sick and relieved at the thought. Whatever vague attachment he had was just an instinctual reaction, and acting on anything like that would be moving past the brief lususing-up into something a little too pale for comfort. 

The kid needed a doctor and a lusus, not some stranger brushing his hair for him. He looked too close to the stereotype for palebait pushed to the unhealthiest limits possible. It was uncomfortable to watch him sleep. 

Tavros left for Midstelwape as soon as Kanaya was finished with the letter. 

The head sisters accepted the task and were willing to take the indigo into their care on the short notice. 

It wasn't a nice feeling waking Gamzee up. Karkat might have been right that he was trying to imprint on him. It was just instinctual. Hell, not all trolls were raised by lusii anymore, a good deal were raised by their dam and sire almost like with human families. 

Gamzee was slightly nervous from the unexpected shaking, but he'd lit up like the Alternian sun when he saw it was Tavros. He didn't even ask why they needed to go see the sisters at Midstelwape. Everything was fine and he was chill with it.

Thank the fates, he fell asleep on the flight again. 

Tavros wasn't about to take his coat back. He handed Gamzee over to a sister at the gate of the abbey while he was still blessedly out, and the black carapace in linen robes carried the sleeping troll back to the abbey with the company of an old human woman. 

They promised Gamzee would be well taken care of, and thanked Tavros for bringing him to them. The child was in a bad state. 

He'd given them the package for Gamzee so he could have his facepaint when he woke up.

When Tavros took off again, he hovered awhile to look at the abbey while he went. It was one of those old highblood castles from when the caste system was hideously dominant and nobody helped anyone they weren't interested in being in a quadrant with. The brown stone was old and worn around the edges. The outerwall had several thick gates, with a huge garden and orchard within its walls, several of the trees were in bloom, and their perfume filled the air. 

It was a good place with good people.

He flew off assured that the indigo was in the care of the sisters and the fates. Gamzee was safe here and would be cared for properly.  
The night was clear and wonderful for flying. Tavros still had some deliveries to make.

 

______________

 

"From now on, all the toilets in the lands will be called- Cro's!" -Grandhighblood from the stage production of Robin Hood Trolls in Tights


End file.
